No More Hangman - Easy ESL Games For Low-Level Kids [PDF]

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No more Hangman: Easy Tefl games for all ages Copyright © 2017 by Johnny Friel All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

Message from the author Why you should buy this book Tips on discipline and classroom management

Things you should always bring to the classroom Notes about Beginners Quick reference table for games No prep games for beginners Low prep games for beginners

Message from the author I’ve worked as an English teacher for over three years, in that time I’ve taught every type of lesson you can think of. Even though in the beginning of my journey I had studied an intensive course to qualify, the moment I stepped into a classroom, I was overtaken with stage fright. I reverted to starting the lesson with the only game I could think of, Hangman. Fast-forward to now, I have experience that ranges from incredibly young three old toddlers who can barely stand up to business executives who need to brush up on some lingo before an important meeting. In hindsight, I feel the biggest problem faced with teachers usually takes the form of ideas. You could spend hours perfecting a lesson plan only for a fellow teacher to recommend something that works more efficiently. So I decided enough is enough, I need a resource that not only I can benefit from but other frustrated teachers can as well. Whether you are just starting into the lucrative career of English teaching and dream of living abroad or you are a seasoned veteran interested in breaking away from your comfort zone to learn a few new things, this book is going to help save you time, effort and sanity.

Why you should buy this book You need to cover a lesson in a short amount of time without a lesson plan. You are lesson planning and need a quick reference of games to help fluff up the lesson. You are already in a lesson and some of your games aren’t working too well. You can quickly glance at this eBook on your phone. You are interested in learning about different games focused for levels you have little to no experience in. You are at a party with friends and need ideas for drinking games (teacher’s use a few tefl games.) You want to spice up a class you currently have with some fresh ideas. You want to easily structure lessons that focus on specific language areas. You want a straight to the point resource. You are literally out of ideas. It’s super cheap to buy and all your teacher chums will be jealous. No prep vs low prep No prep

Low prep Little to no time to prepare before a lesson. In class and need to think quickly for a game when another game isn’t working. Usually focuses on 1 or 2 areas of learning. Less instructions so better suited for very low-level-

Either you need materials for the lesson or you can make materials under 30 mins or less. Looking for ideas while lesson planning. Low-prep games work more effectively in learning. Usually focuses on 2 or

more areas of learning. Better suited for preintermediate- upper intermediate as there are more instructions.

pre-intermediate.

Tips on discipline and classroom management I had to throw this section into the eBook, bad kids are inevitable. Here’s a few ideas on what to do. Stars and crosses One of the best ways to manage a classroom. Divide students up into two or three teams if it’s a big class. If it’s a small class, put student’s names on the board. Students that participate or answer correctly earn stars for their team. Bad students get either crosses for their team or stars removed. Once a student gets 3 crosses, ask the teaching assistant to take him/her outside to talk to them and explain why they are misbehaving. Students or teams that achieve a certain number of stars should be rewarded; coloring pages, candy, favorite dance song as a cooler. Student name Pokemon Elsa Bort

*** ** x Stop misbehaving Bort

Stand up Make a kid misbehaving stand up, ask teaching assistant to explain to student why they are having to stand-up. After a few minutes tell the student to sit down again. Naming the student You will always remember a bad kids name, shout out his/her name when they misbehave. This will make them feel embarrassed about their bad behavior. Stare at the kid with a neutral face to reinforce the effect. The countdown Kids will get back into their sit quickly once you start count down from 5 to 1. Some bad kids will want to see what happens when you get to 1 so ask your teaching assistant to take him outside or remove points from his team. Write something down Either pretend to write something down or get the bad student to sign a piece of paper that you say will be going to their parents. Personal talking Ask the bad student to come to the front, talk to them and tell them calmly that they need to behave because you want to give them reward for being good. Take it away Take away any objects a distracted kid is playing with and place it on your table. You could also encourage a little peer-pressure among the other students if the next misbehaves next time by

stopping the game and opening the work books.

Things you should always bring to the classroom Blank paper- kids might forget their books. Pens or pencils- kids might forget their pencils/pens. Candy- When the students are being unresponsive, show them what they can get as a reward if they participate or if their team wins. Water- you will dehydrated quickly after about 30 mins of dancing and talking. Sticky ball- useful for playing games on the board. Coloring paper- reward kids at the end of the lesson with paper to color. Zombie Pikachu is very popular. Enthusiasm- If you aren’t fun to be around, kids won’t want to interact. Stickers- kids just love them. Notes about beginners/low-level Use a lot of body language and smile a lot, some of these kids won’t speak a lot of English and you need to win their trust. Make sure to have an assistant for very young kids, help to communicate tasks and create atmosphere. Utilize realia, flashcards, photos and anything visual to stimulate

students. Know a few basic words or phrases in the students language Speak…very….slowly…… Try and teach all four skills.Kids at this age have more difficulty with speaking and listening. Drill and repeat as much as you can. Possibly play a song at the beginning or end of a lesson and do a fun dance. Drop all westernized cynicism about dancing and have fun. *Remember that some English words are universal such as pizza, spiderman, frozen, pokemon, ice-cream. Use this to add some humor into the classroom. Teacher- “who here loves Ice-cream? What about pizza? What about ice-cream ON pizza?” Quick reference table for beginner level

5 -10 min No prep game Review

1. 2. 8. 9. 16.

15min or more No prep game 4. 5. 21. 22. 23. 26.

Warmer

6. 9. 14. 15. 29.

22. 23. 24. 27. 29.

Ice-breaker 7. 9. 11. 15. 27. 29. Cooler

3. 13. 15. 29.

4. 22. 23. 25. 28.

5 -10 min Low-prep game

15min or more Low-prep game 31. 34. 35. 49. 50. 51.

33. 39. 40. 41. 43. 45. 30. 33. 40. 46. 48.

38. 49.

32. 33. 42.

50.

32.37. 41. 44.

34. 35. 36. 50.

Listening

3. 13. 15. 16. 17.

20. 21. 22. 25. 26.

32. 39. 45. 48.

31. 38. 49.

Speaking

6. 7. 11. 14. 19. 20. 22. 26. 28.

32. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44.

35. 36. 38. 51.

Reading and vocab Writing

1. 2. 10. 12. 16. 2. 3. 10. 16. 17. n/a

30. 37. 42. 46. 47. 37. 52. 53. 54. 55. 39. 40. 42. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48.

31. 34. 35. 51. 31. 36.

Uses Flash cards

19. 21. 26. 4. 5. 21. 26. n/a

No Prep 1. Make the most words Write a long word on the board like December or hospital. In twos, ask students to make as many new words from it as they can. Use even longer words to make the game last longer. Score teams points per word, extra points for the longest words made. 2. Mixed-up sentence Write a sentence on the board with the word order all mixed-up. Students then have to reconstruct the sentence so it makes sense. Example: Banana is a this. 3. How many sounds can you hear? Get Students to sit in silence for two or three minutes. Tell them to write down every sound that they hear.

Compare their lists with their other students and see who has the longest. 4. The A to Z game Give students a theme, jobs/food/countries. Write the letters A to Z on the board. Encourage students into teams. Students race to write an appropriate word next to each letter on the board.

Back to table 5. Name ten Students have to think of 10 items for a certain criteria. Students take turns writing one on the board or saying on the spot. Examples: sports that involve a ball, animals with fur, popular football teams, parts of the body that are three letters. 6. Word Association Give a word like apple or write on board. Student should takes it in turns to say a word associated with the previous word. If it’s not an obvious connection, ask students why. Example: Apple-banana-monkey-zoo-elephant 7. Three things in common Ask students to work in pairs and then find three things that they have in common. Request students to report what they have found out. Ideas such as things you do on the weekend, favorite food, reasons why you don’t like broccoli flavored ice-cream. 8. Tic Tac Toe Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the board.

In each space write a topic that students might be interested in Play the game with two teams, to claim their X or O. Students must attempt to talk about the chosen topic in for 30 to 60 seconds.

Back to table 9. Organize yourselves Students get in order based on a given criteria. For example you can use age, name, height. 10. Letter string dictation Think of a couple of questions for students to discuss in pairs or groups. Write the questions down, then dictate them as a long string of letters. Example: whatisyourfavouriteflavourofpizza? Whatkindofbooksdoyouread? 11. Yes/No One student goes to the front of the room. Everyone else have to ask him/her questions one at a time. If the student says yes, no or repeats a phrase, they lose. Set a timer and see who can last the longest 12. Last letter word game Students go up to the board. The teacher starts by writing one word. Each word must be followed by another one beginning with the last letter of the previous word. Example: Cat – Tree – Egg You can make it more challenging by making the first row- vocab, second row- verbs, third row-adjectives etc.

Back to table 13. Pronunciation Whispers Divide the class into two teams, each team has to form a line. Tell each team a different word. Students then whisper the word to the student next to them If the last team member pronounces the word correctly, that team win. Perfect game before end of lesson, you can also make it harder by writing the word on a piece of paper. 14. Line up Think of three questions (maybe two basic questions and one interesting question). Write the questions on the board. Separate the students into two lines so that they are facing each other. When you say “go”, student asks the person opposite the question. Once the first student has asked all 3 questions and answered, say “switch”. One line will remain while the other moves down one. 15. Teacher says Tell students to stand up. Say "Teacher says _____ (touch nose)" or "_____ (jump)" If you say "Teacher says" then they must do it, if you don't say "Teacher says" then they don't do it. Make them sit down if they lose. Continue until only one person is standing.

Back to table 16. Sprite Divide students into two teams, you can have more teams if it’s a

larger class. Say a vocab or focus word or sentence from your lesson. Students get into two lines standing facing the board. Say a word/sentence and say "Go". Each student runs to the board and writes it down and must say the word. The first one to say and write it correctly gets a point. 17. Pass the marker Have two groups, put them into 2 lines and give the marker to the first student in the line. When you say the word to practice, the first student must pass the marker until it reaches the last student in the line. The last student will quickly write the word on the board. Points for the group that finish first. 18.Charades Choose a word or phrase, for example, "play football". Pretend to play football without speaking. Students have to guess what it is. Have the correct guesser come forward so they can then mime a word. 19.Rock, scissors, paper On the board write + or - 1/+ or - 5/+ or – 10. Divide the students into teams. Have two students put together a sentence. The first student to say it correctly has to choose a number 1, 5 or 10. Rock, scissors, paper!!!! If they select 5 and win, they get +5. If they select 5 and lose, they get -5.

Back to table 20.Tongue Twisters

Create 3 different tongue twisters using the phonics you are teaching for the lesson. Write them on the board. Choose a student and say the phoneme or sound (not the letters). Students must circle the words that contain those letters. If students are a higher level, get them to try and say as fast as they can. Examples: For consonant blends- she sells seashells by the seashore, slim slam slap, he threw three free throws L vs r- red lorry yellow lorry, red blood bad blood. vowels – annie ate eight arctic apples, eddie edited earls easy music. 21.Board race Split the class into two teams, each team has a colored marker. If it’s a very large class, split the students into teams of 3 or 4. Draw a line down the middle of the board and write a topic at the top. The students must then write as many words as they can related to the topic (like a relay race). Each team wins one point for every correct word. Words that are unreadable or misspelled don’t counted.

Back to table 22.Hot seat Create two teams in the class, or more if you have a large class. Elect one person from each team, they must sit in the Hot Seat which is facing the classroom with the board behind them. Write a word on the board.

Encourage one team member to describe the word in English to the student in the hot seat (in English). They cannot say, spell or draw the word. Continue until everyone has been in the hot seat. 23.Banana, Banana Write all the vocab words from any unit on the white board. All the students repeat words as you write them down. Next send one student out of the room and erase one off the words, then on the count of three have all the students yell "Banana,banana!!!". The student outside the classroom comes back in and has to guess the right word, but none of the other kids can tell them the answer. Reward the student with a team or individual point. 24. Bang Students form in to a circle. The teacher represents a cowboy in the center of the circle. Teacher makes a gun shape with their hand. Teacher points to a student (shoots them) and says the target vocab. This student ducks and the Students on either side of them must shoot each other with the answer. The first to say the vocab correctly wins, whilst the second is out.

Back to table Some examples you could use for Bang: Opposites bang: (Teacher points to a student and says "yes." Students on either side of the targeted student point to each other and say "NO!") Adjective bang: (Point to a student and say "Tree". Students on either side say: "Green!" or "Tall!" etc..) Adverbs Bang: (Point and say: "Ride a bike". Students say: "Slowly" (or "Ride a bike slowly!" for more advanced classes) 25. Everybody’s an artist

Teacher thinks of descriptions of people. You group the students into teams and choose one student from each team to come to the board and draw someone you describe. Make the descriptions very funny, like a fat man with one eye, a big nose, big butt. Tell the descriptions only twice, and make them as complex or as simple as you want. 26. Messenger and Scribe Create a barrier between the board and the back of the room. Split students into two teams or more. Students shout the word (eg. "chicken"), then the spelling (eg. c-hi-c...) to their partner, who writes it on the board. First team to finish gets one point.

Back to table 27. The wacky drawing race Split the class into teams then you split the board according to the number of teams. Have the first person from each group come up. Elicit a sentence such as "Pikachu is eating pizza and swimming". Try and make it as funny and crazy as possible. Students draw the picture that you've stated as fast as they can. After each round, to get the students more involved, do a class vote for the "best/most interesting picture. Continue this until everyone in the group has participated. 28. Translation game Encourage two teams of 4 - 6. One member of each team ('The Translator') sits with their back to the board. Team members, all facing the board, close in around their

Translator. The teacher writes a sentence in English on the whiteboard. Teams translate from English to L1, translator translates back into English, with considerable prompting from team members. 29. Clap and count Tell students you are going to play a clapping game then show them a picture of a familiar object, ask them to name the object, then ask them to say the word again while clapping to its beat. For example, "apple" -- "ap (clap)" "ple (clap)." Next, ask them to repeat the clapping rhythm while counting aloud "(clap) one" " (clap) two." Ask them how many times they clapped. When they respond, explain that "apple" is made up of two sound bites called syllables.

Back to table Show additional pictures, and let students continue clapping and counting their way through the vocabulary review. For added interest, make up alternate rhythms to accompany syllable breakdown. For instance: First syllable -- clap Second syllable -- slap (either knees or a partner's hands) Third syllable – stomp

Low-Prep 30. Who am I? Type a list of between 10-20 names of famous people/cartoon characters, e.g.: "Ella", "Beyonce", etc. Cut into slips of paper.

Place a slip of paper onto each student's back. Students walk around and ask each other Yes or No questions about who’s on their back e.g “are you a princess?” etc 31. Stop the Bus Students draw a table on a piece of paper. Fill table with assigned topics, or alternatively hand out blank tables on worksheets. Ask students what topics they’d like to try, or choose topics based on what’s been learned so far such as movies, food, animals. Each round, teacher writes one letter on the board. The first group/individual to fill out their entire table on the sheet with answers beginning with that letter must shout “STOP THE BUS”. If all answers are correct, they win the round. Example: if the topic was the letter B Brian | Bird | Batman | Brush

Back to table 32. Word Chain Get a soft ball or a soft die and ask students to stand. Pass the ball to a student and give them a letter ("A"). That student gives you a word that begins with that letter ("Apple"). They then pass the ball back to you. You pass the ball to the next student. Take the last letter from that word ("e"). Pass the ball to the next student and give them that letter. 33. Pass and ask Get a ball/soft die/scrunched up paper ball. Have a list of questions to ask for the students. Use questions from your lesson or review. Ask students to stand. Pass the ball/die to a student and ask them a question.

After they answer have them pass the ball/die and ask another student a question. Example: What color is a tiger? Where does a kangaroo live? Name a bird that can’t fly?

Back to table 34. Pictionary Prepare a bunch of words and put them in a bag before a lesson (something relating to the lesson’s topic). Split the class into 2 teams, draw a line down the middle of the board. Give one team member from both teams a pen, ask them to choose a word from the bag. Ask the students to draw the word as a picture on the board. The first team to shout the correct answer wins a point. The student drawing should then nominate someone else in their team to draw. Keep playing until all the words are gone. 35. The mime Write out some actions - like feeding chickens - and put them in a bag before class. Split the students into two teams. Bring one student from each team to the front of the class. Each student must choose an action from the bag. Both students mime the action to their team. The first team to shout the correct answer will win a point.

Repeat until everyone has had a go. 36. Ring of Fire You will need a deck of cards and a list for the rules. Each student has to write down five questions on a piece of paper, then cut them up so each question is on a separate piece. Fold the pieces up into balls. Questions are all put in the middle of the ring of cards. Each student comes up in turn to pick a card.

Back to table Cards are assigned to a particular rule, here is a list you could useKing: Ask anyone. Student picks a question out of the pile and asks it to anyone of their choosing. Queen: Ask a girl. Same as above but the student must ask a girl. Jack: Ask a boy. 10: Ask the teacher a question from the pile of balls. 9: Bunny ears! All students have to put their hands to their heads in the shape of bunny ears. The last student must answer a question. 8: Words. Students can choose any topic. For example, “animals.” The students go around in turns saying names of animals. The first one to repeat a word/not be able to think of an animal within 5 seconds answers a question. 7: Pick again. 6: Touch your nose! Same as bunny ears, except students must touch their noses as quickly as possible. 5: Answer one question in the pile. 4: Ask the person on your left a question. 3: Ask the person on your right a question. 2: Pick again. Ace: Ask anyone anything. The student can ask anyone in the classroom anything they want.

Back to table 37. Essay writing Set a list of questions you want students to answer on the board. Create a piece of paper with a square on top to draw, lines below so students can write. If they are low level, make it easier with a fill in the blanks. Example: My ____ is ____. I'm ____ years ____. I go to ____ on weekends. I'm in the ____ grade. I live in _____. Etc. 38. Where Shall I Go? Before the students arrive, turn the classroom into a maze by rearranging chairs. When your students arrive, put them in pairs outside the classroom. Blindfold one student from each pair. Allow pairs to enter the classroom one at a time; the blindfolded student should be led through the maze by their partner. The students must use directions such as step over, go under, go up, and go down to lead their partner to the end of the maze. 39. Hoops For this game you will need a big room, Flash cards and some hula hoops. Place the hula hoops on the floor, and put one flashcard in each hula hoop. Shout out one of the flashcards, every student must then run and put one foot in the hula hoop that contains that flashcard. The last student to put their foot in the hoop has to call out the next flashcard for everyone to run.

Back to table 40. Around the world

Start at one side of the classroom and have two students stand up. Show them a flashcard, if the first student says it correctly moves on to the next student (with the losing student sits down). The aim is to go “around the world”, reading the different flashcards without being beaten and thus returning to the desk where you started. 41. Dice gambling Students get into 2 teams. Ask one student from each team to do a pre-designated task (such as a sentence with a vocabulary word, spelling a word, etc.). If the student can do this correctly, tell him/her that you will give them 3 points, or they can choose to roll the dice instead. If they choose the dice, they can get more points or less. Alternatively choose a number to be a BOMB, if that number rolls, the student loses all their points. 42. Phonics hammer Put the kids' desks in a circle. Give each student a phonics flashcard and have them hold it up so everyone can see. You stand in the middle of the circle, holding a plastic hammer or just use your hand. Choose one kid to start - he/she has to read one of the other kids' flashcards, the person who has that flashcard must read another student's flashcard, and so on.

Back to table If you can hit the desk of the student whose card has been read before he/she is able to read another card, then that student comes to the circle, and you take his/her place. 43. Monster Draw a funny looking monster on the board.

Give one student a sticky ball and ask them to throw the ball at any part of the monsters body. Depending on where it hits, students have to perform an action such as if it’s the monsters head, touch your head or if it’s the monsters leg, student has to balance on one leg. Student has to remain in that position until they can correctly say the name of the body part. 44. The missing flashcard game Place a number of flashcards in front of the students. Give them a moment to memorize the cards. Tell them to close their eyes and take away a card. They have to try and guess the missing card. 45. Touch Place flashcards around the room and have students run around the classroom and touch the cards when you give the command. “Touch the bus, touch the car”. 46. Pass Sit in a circle with the kids. Hold up a flashcard and say it. Pass to the student next to you, they must say it and then pass it again. Make a few variations such as fast, slow, different directions, different objects etc.

Back to table 47. Bean bag toss Lay flashcards face down on the ground. Students toss the bean bag and identify the card when turned over. 48.Up and down You need to have 2 sets of the same flashcards for this game.

Give each student one card and you keep the other set. Arrange students so they are sitting down. When you hold up a flash card that student also has, the student stands up and says the word. 49. The Body Building Game Split the class into teams. On the board draw limbless, featureless faces. Tell the front person in each group to stand up. You then ask the kids who are standing up a question. The quickest one to raise their hand can answer, if they're correct, they get to roll an inflatable dice (I actually made a big dice out of cardboard). If they get a "1" they can draw an eye on their team's face. If they have a "2" they can draw an ear. Similarly, "3" is a nose, "4" is a mouth, "5" is an arm and "6" is a leg. Each team can only have one nose, one mouth, and two each of everything else. For example, if your team already has 2 arms, and you roll another number "5" then that go is a "pass" because you can't add another arm. The winning team is the first team to get 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 mouth, 2 arms and 2 legs. If you run out of time then the team with the most features is the winner!

Back to table 50. Uno The aim of this game is to ask and answer questions. Questions may be relevant to work done in class or general. Decide which cards will be "special". For example, all Aces in the deck are question cards, all 1's, 2's and 3's. We usually we have 5 or 6 "special" cards. Each person is given a certain number of cards, depending on how many people there are. Usually, 5-7 cards.

The person who plays the special card has to ask a question and the next person has to answer. The kids often try to ask difficult questions to trick their friends. If you are using UNO cards, all other rules apply. If you answer correctly you can play, if you don't you forfeit and you get one extra card. The winner is the person with no cards. 51. Volcano game The teacher cuts up paper into little squares, writes an English word on the paper, folds it in half, and hands it to a student. The student must NOT say the word on the paper! The student must communicate the definition to the class, and the class tries to guess the word. The student can use body language to try to explain the meaning, and obtain help from a friend sitting next to him/her if so desired.

Back to table 52. Post-it game 1 Give students a few post-it stickers. Ask them to write down words for things that are in the classroom as well as their name. After 5 minutes, tell students to label whatever is in the room. The student with the most labels wins. You could also use a particular topic like animals and they have to stick their post-its on the board in the order of a line. 53. Post-it game 2 Place a number of post-its around the room with misspelled words written on them. Students get into teams and have to collect and correct as many words as they can.

Students spend 5 minutes trying to get any many correct as possible. The team with the most correct words wins. 54. Coloring paper story game Print out a load of coloring pages but will a few lines at the bottom. Students must write a story about the picture, put target vocab on the board that they must use. Allow students to read their story and as a reward they can color the picture.

Back to table 55. Reasons why Print out a selection of different coloring pages. Tell students to write on paper reasons why they want a coloring page or what coloring page. Place words on the board to help them. Collect all pieces of paper and teacher reads them out and guesses who wrote it. Teacher checks and if it’s written correctly, they get a page, anything wrong is given back for students to try again.

Back to table